Extremes

What deeps, the droves of loneliness can dig!

Can make you weep and cry for things inane.
A tearing need
a dire craving
an endless pit
an angry chasm

What chances the angst of age can augur!
Can make the sanest soul savor a life on edge.
A growing fear
a silent scream
a senseless infatuation
a one night stand

What abuse marginalization can procure!
Can make the apathetic cringe for sure.
a soundless whipping
an endless pain
a racial slur
an ire unexplained.

Support "The 'Dream Act" - A Bill Truly 'American' !

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

(Emma Lazarus' poem inscribed on the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands)

Juan came to this country when he was 10 years old. He was heartbroken to leave his grandmother behind in Honduras, his native country; she had been the sole family he had had for the first ten years of his life. His father left Honduras before Juan came into the world, and his mother left shortly after, seeking a new life in the USA. Some ten years later, Juan is told that his parents have sent for him, and he boards a plane to come to the USA to join his parents who are now illegal immigrants as their visitor VISA had expired within a few months of their arrival.

Juan joins two strangers, his parents, in a strange land and starts in a strange American Public School setting where his native language, Spanish, is of no help. He is enrolled in an ESL program, and that is the beginning of his academic career. The 11 year old gradually gets acclimatized to his new parents in the new setting, and is gladdened by the arrival of his baby brother who till date is the only one Juan considers as his real family. Within months of his arrival, Juan too becomes an illegal alien, a status he is completely oblivious of until he is in his junior year at high school and is thinking of college as his next step toward living the American dream. What is more is that Juan is now a star soccer player who has been the MVP in the county for two consecutive years scoring the highest number of goals. At the All Star Game, the recruiters all make a beeline for Juan only to lose interest when the coach tells them of Juan's undeclared legal status. In the meanwhile, Juan is slowly awakening to to the reality of his situation; he sees his team mates, who played soccer only so that they could put that on their resume, being accepted to colleges on full and partial scholarships. His high school coach tries to find Juan a spot in a community college only to find that the college cannot give Juan any money because he is undocumented. Juan's parents in the meanwhile, decide to separate, and decide that Juan will go with the father and Jose the younger would stay with the mother. Juan cannot bear the thought of separating from Jose, the one human being he feels connected with! He protests but to no avail. His father, who is a part owner in a construction business, has to relocate because of the non availability of jobs in the current recession. As a result of the financial crunch, he will also not be able to help pay for Juan's college. Juan is devastated; his dream of going to college and being able to play soccer at a college level is shattered!

Juan has since done odd jobs accompanying his father to construction sites every now and again. He plays soccer whenever he can on adult leagues that call him when they are short on players for practices. That may perhaps be only reason why Juan hasn't sunk into depression despite the hopeless situation he finds himself in.

Why should this trusting 19 year old have to pay a price this big for something he really is not responsible for? Why should Juan have to suffer for the decisions made by his parents? Why does he have to suffer the illegal alien status when the USA is the only place he recognizes as home, a home he has never been outside of since he first arrived here?

The 'Dream Act' can bring hope into Juan's life and into the lives of thousands of other Juans who live their life in fear, in a kind of limbo that they cannot find a way out of. Life is passing by for the Juans of this country, and we can change that if we support the Dream Act that will give the children of illegal immigrants their life and the opportunity to live out their American Dream!

A Relationship - An Asset or a Liability?

A chance meeting actuates it:
a glance, a touch, a word, an act
can set it in motion.

It takes root
before you know it.
It starts to grow
and you sense it.
It starts to knock
you can still ignore it.
It starts to move in;
now you feel the push.
Finally it occupies
n then you wonder at it!

When? How? Why?
And what next?
Will it stay?
Will it grow?
Will it co exist
or will it replace?
Will it calm?
or will it rile up?
Will it destroy?

Will it bring:
a new vision
with a new meaning,
maybe a new understanding
to begin a new chapter?
Perhaps one of the last,
as mortality beckons.

Jude Law on Broadway - an energetic and mercurial Hamlet.

Jude Law brought his own flavor to Shakespeare's Hamlet. The British actor carried the role with a vitality and vitriol that was truly captivating. His use of pauses, as tools to manipulate audience response, was a masterful stroke that had the audience participate in his eccentric-sounding yet witty pondering. Jude Law presented a Hamlet whose hands and body movement spoke volumes for him, as did his poignant pauses in speech delivery. This prince was more prone to flights of mercurial fancy. He drove speedily in and out of emotions such as anger, ridicule, jest, and pain; unlike other Hamlets he did not indulge in long bouts of melancholia and brooding. Jude Law's lean physique lent itself to this characterization of ebullience and vitality, not quite associated with earlier Hamlets. This combination of vitriol and energy in Mr Law's spasmodic yet graceful bodily movements quite compliment the indecisiveness in Hamlet 's character! Which makes me wonder how exhausted he must have been at the end of the 3 hour 15 minutes performance during which he performed for more than 40% of the time! Also, I would be curious to know if Mr Law surprised himself by his range of rendition in presenting the Danish Prince to audiences in London and New York over the last few months. In fact in one interview he admits, " there is no definitive ‘Hamlet,’ because you don’t play Hamlet, Hamlet plays you."

Mr Michael Grandage, the director of the play, has done a splendid job of creating an austere Demark, 'an unweeded garden' with 'things rank and gross'. The set and costumes are both, in minimalist tradition. The metaphor of Denmark as prison was well captured by the cold, grey fortified walls that Hamlet was presented against and within, as were the costumes in subdued shades of grey, blue, and brown. The supporting cast members did reasonably well to support Mr Law in one of his best performances, though they did appear wanting in a few scenes when they were pitted against a superbly fluid and natural Hamlet, not quite as somber or melancholy as the earlier Hamlets played by Lawrence Oliviere and Richard Burton.

This is a show I strongly recommend! I was pained at the amount it cost a dear one to have me watch this play on Broadway, but it was definitely worth it. Jude Law's rendition of Hamlet is in fact a tribute to Shakespeare's characterization.

"A Poet' - Defies Definition ?

A poet is...

a passive painter of words
plush with passionate beliefs;

a traveler in a trance-like state
disconnected yet empathetic;

a sensitive soul, doubtless,
yet doesn't bother blending;

a stranger who defies definition
yet spends a lifetime seeking one!

Nobel Peace Prize a "Political Liability" for President Obama?

"I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations."
President Barack Obama on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009

David Axelrod's statement, " I'd like to believe that winning the Nobel Peace Prize is not a political liability" made me stop and wonder on a possibility.... Would conferring a recognition of that proportion impact/burden an individual like Obama such that he could make choices which he would not have otherwise made? Will the lure of being remembered in posterity make Obama more global and less national? Will the thought of sharing space in history books in years to come with the likes of Dr. Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, and Nelson Mandela, affect Obama's decision making today, especially on global issues such as immigration, nuclear proliferation, climate change, human rights, and poverty?

The Nobel committee that selected President Obama, based the selection on, "Obama's vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons". A preemptive strategy, perhaps, to ensure global peace by presenting a unique opportunity to the leader of the most powerful nation in the world to become revered in the annuls of history. Will this bait of recognition work its charm? Will Obama's decisions henceforth have a distinct global f(l)avor? Will he now scrutinize his agendas under a global/philanthropic lens? Will he consciously or unconsciously try to justify the honor conferred on him, and will the world be the better for it? Will the USA end up becoming the collateral damage in all this?

I am optimistic about my President; yet, these questions linger...

"A Honeyed Gaze" - A Sonnet

Do they smile for me I wonder ..
Crinkling almost as if to lure
And then suddenly they dance
While stealing a glance
Furtively flirting so often
readily waiting to soften
Appealing and repealing
Like a lover besotted

Honey gold blinders
so forlorn yet tender
Innocently they seduce
with a gaze so compelling
that its a tug at your heart
saying, "Do we have to part?"

"My Antonia"- Willa Cather's Sensitive Portrayal of the Eternal American Displacement

Thank you Gloria, for lending me Willa Cathers 'My Antonia', an amazing piece of American literature that brings alive Nebraska of the 1880s. It is in this backdrop that Ms. Cathers presents her endearing protagonist, Antonia, the epitome of the female pioneer spirit of the late 1800s, when a woman was but an adage in a male dominated world.

Antonia, a Bohemian immigrant comes to Nebraska as a twelve year old along with her family, all of who don't speak English. There she meets Jim Burden, a young American boy who is forced to move in with his grandparents after the untimely death of his parents. This marks the beginning of a very deep and unique relationship that Kathleen Norris calls "a remarkable friendship between a man and woman of different cultures and classes, a childhood affection that helps ...reconcile them to Nebraska, to the past, and to life itself." It is no surprise therefore when an adult Jim confesses, "You really are a part of me." Ms. Cathers has presented two very enchanting individuals in Jim and Antonia, both of who are committed to overcoming their odds with a stoicism that baffles. What is more intriguing is their deep understanding of each others decisions and actions, even as their living worlds are gradually growing apart with Jim going to university for a 'mental awakening...that introduced (him) to the world of ideas", and Antonia, in the meanwhile 'had come home disgraced' because she is 'not married... and (she) ought to be."

The underlying message in the novel is brilliantly captured by an image that Cathers introduces toward the middle of the novel, that of a gigantic plow against the orange hue of the setting sun epitomizing the harshness of frontier life in Nebraska as completely dominating every nicety and finesse that life chanced to offer. The endless struggle for survival amid the 'brutality of pioneer life in the prairies' appeared to have overshadowed, perhaps even defeated, and certainly redefined many sublime human emotions such as love and caring. The 'plow' with all its symbolic undertones wins hands down as it looms large between Antonia and the warmth of a comfortable life. Yet the plow cannot be hated since it singularly sustains life in the cold and cruel prairies of Nebraska. It is extremely valuable, so much so that it could make university learning, like Jim's 'mental awakening', appear shallow and meaningless in comparison.

Willa Cathers has spun a remarkable story of lasting friendship that is unique and undoubtedly ahead of its times given that Tim and Antonia could just as well have been ideal lovers or a well matched couple had it not been for the time period in which they lived. Their deep respect and unconditional love for each other and for the land that sustains them make for tragic undertones which strangely enough are satisfying for the reader. The novelist so nonchalantly spins the tragic and the sublime as it follows the lives of two undaunted human beings who are, both lovers and victims of Nebraska's unforgiving prairies.